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The Nevada Independent

Technology

Indy Explains

Have data center tax breaks helped Nevada's economy? Here's what we found.

There are significant disagreements about whether the industry's economic benefits are worth the combined $457 million in projected tax abatements that Nevada has doled out over the past decade.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers patrol the Las Vegas Strip.

Vegas police are big users of license plate readers. Public has little input because it's a gift.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department quietly entered an agreement in 2023 with Flock Security, an automated license plate reader company that uses cameras to collect vehicle information and cross-reference it with police databases. Unlike many of the other police departments around the country that use the cameras in their police work, Metro funds the project with donor money funneled into a private foundation.

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Tech industry pushes back against bill making phones easier to repair

Environmentalists and electronic repair shops on Monday hailed a bill making it easier for consumers to repair their electronic devices as a way to reduce toxic waste. But technology firms criticized the legislation for potential cybersecurity risks and unintended consequences.

'Innovation Zones' promoted by Sisolak would create semi-autonomous county at behest of Blockchains LLC

The proposal by Blockchains LLC would create essentially autonomous districts that function as a county-within-a-county, taking over responsibilities such as tax collection, K-12 education and other services normally provided by county governments. Such "zones" could only be created by a private developer who owns more than 50,000 acres of land (such as Blockchains), promises to invest up to $1 billion in the Zone and agrees to levy an industry-specific tax on an "innovative technology" based in the Zone itself.

In rural Nevada, bridging the education 'digital divide' largely means improving internet access

Even if Angela McVicars and her school-age daughters started the day with functioning internet, a sense of foreboding clouded their remote learning. They knew it was a matter of when, not if, the internet connection would suddenly freeze and require a manual reboot — a process that could take a handful of minutes or close to an hour if a call to their service provider was needed.